New York’s Struggle to Serve Immigrants

The New York mayor’s office has cut funds, estimating that basic housing, food and education services until June for the almost 49,000 migrants who have arrived in the city will cost more than 4,000 million dollars. For this reason, it has cut 1.2 million dollars from the program for Language Access and translations, which parents already resent.

The lack of support from federal funds has the local government scrambling to seek funds from community organizations, which raised a contribution of 2.2 million, a small fraction of the projected budget to be able to continue providing shelters.

“First of all, here is the hotel that received us and we are fine there,” says Anderson, a Venezuelan migrant.

Cuts to other city services have some politicians concerned, including Staten Island Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, who says the right to shelter is for homeless people in New York and not for citizens of other countries.

“What I would tell them is that they are not coming anymore because the situation is a bit hard, especially for single mothers who always come alone with their children,” says Magaly, an Ecuadorian migrant.

The City Council has requested one billion dollars from FEMA, the federal emergency management agency, and so far only $8 million has been authorized, according to the mayor’s office.